Breast cancer MAPPED: Where in Britain the DEADLY disease is most prevalent...

Breast cancer MAPPED: Where in Britain the DEADLY disease is most prevalent...

BREAST cancer is the most common cancer in females in the UK, but spotting the symptoms of the disease early could give people the best chance of successful treatment. Express.co.uk has exclusively revealed a map of the regions of the UK which has the highest prevalence of the potentially fatal disease.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women; and one in eight women in the UK will develop the disease during their lifetime. These are the symptoms to check for.

Cancer Research UK reports that there were 55,222 cases of invasive breast cancer in 2014 in the UK, with 11,433 deaths from the disease in the same year.

Almost half - 48 per cent - of breast cancer cases in the UK each year are diagnosed in people aged 65 and over (2012-2014).

Since the late 1970s, breast cancer incidence rates have increased by more than half - 54 per cent - in Great Britain, though this includes an increase in females 64 per cent and stable rates in males.

Figures revealed by the ONS show the north east has the highest overall cancer rates, closely followed by the north west and Yorkshire and the Humber.

GETTY

Breast cancer: The disease is the most common cancer affecting women

Cancer Research UK reports that there were 55,222 cases of invasive breast cancer in 2014 in the UK

Cancer Research UK

An average of 637.7 people per every 100,000 were diagnosed with all types of cancer in the north east, which includes Newcastle, Middlesborough, Durham, Gateshead and Stockton-On-Tees.

People least likely to be diagnosed with all types of cancer lives in London, the east of England and the southeast of the country - cities including Norwich, Cambridge and Brighton.

Across England, the average rate of cancer diagnosis was 169.9 per 100,000 people.

The east midlands most closely represents England’s average - with 3,925 people affected annually - with 169.6 people in every 100,000 being diagnosed with the disease.

ONS

Cancer map of England: Overall rates of all cancers in England, mapped by region

Risk factors of breast cancer include getting older, family history - which could mean having an inherited faulty gene, having a previous breast cancer, having a form of cancer other than breast cancer and taking hormone replacement therapy.

Other risk factors include drinking alcohol and smoking, being overweight, and other medical conditions such as diabetes.